D5 Director Kelly Brown will keynote a panel discussion for funders featuring Clark McCain, Senior Program Officer, Coleman Foundation; Frank Baiocchi, Senior Program Officer, Polk Bros. Foundation; and Grace Hou, CEO, Woods Fund Chicago. The program, Philanthropy, Disability, and Diversity: Opportunities for Leadership, is on Tues., Oct. 20 beginning with a networking breakfast at 8:30 am. The program will take place from 9:00 am to 11:00 am. We encourage all grantmakers to attend this complimentary program. Register here.

With the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) 25 years ago, our nation committed itself to eliminating discrimination against people with disabilities. Since then, people with disabilities have overcome a myriad of barriers — both literal and figurative. They have greater access to public resources, and have protections against discrimination in the workplace. But we must remind ourselves that there is more to inclusivity than wheelchair ramps.

The philanthropic community prides itself on doing the best for the constituencies we serve. As we celebrate the anniversary of this historic milestone in our fight for equal opportunity for all, foundations should recommit to ensuring that people with disabilities are represented both in the decision-making process and the outcomes of our work.

Importantly, we need to do more to walk the walk by ensuring that people with diverse abilities are visible and present within our own ranks. One in five Americans has a disability; they are likely members of every community we serve.

When we bring people living with disabilities onto our own teams, we gain the knowledge and perspective to better serve our constituencies, which allow us to better advance the common good.

One great example is the story of Jonah Selber, a Philadelphia man and 18-year employee of the Thomas Jefferson University Hospital who was born with a developmental disability. A few years ago, Jonah’s stepfather, Robert Schwartz, invited Jonah and his siblings to join the board of the private foundation he established.

Last year, Schwartz provided each sibling with $15,000 to donate to the causes of their choice. Selber chose Jefferson Hospital, as well as Adults with Developmental Disabilities, a nonprofit that organizes social activities for adults with developmental disabilities. He knew from his experience that there was a need.

“A lot of people — my people — didn’t have enough money for the activities,” said Selber in a recent interview with D5.

“What surprised me, and Jonah is always surprising me, is that he knew before anybody else exactly where the money was going to go,” added his mother, Judy Creed. “He knew where to target the money, and he was right about them. People don’t see people with disabilities as having abilities.”

In thinking about what foundations can do to better serve and support people with disabilities, there is one important step we hear time and again: just ask.

As Anne Mulgrave, Manager of Grants and Accessibility at the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council, recently commented on the D5 website, “People with disabilities know the support they need and the best way to provide it. Respect comes from asking questions, listening to the answers and following through.”

We did just that. And below are some tangible ways for us to hold up a mirror to our own inclusive practices and move toward inclusivity in our own organizations right now, shared with us by people at disability-focused organizations:

1.    Add a disability metric to your monitoring and evaluation work with nonprofits.
2.    Ensure that when you and your nonprofit partners are collecting data to better understand who you are serving, the voices of people with different abilities are included and counted.
3.    Invite people to list any accommodations they might need (e.g., sign language interpreters or the ability to bring a service animal) on all your event or conference registration forms.
4.    Have someone who uses a wheelchair personally check the physical accessibility of your offices and programs for people who use wheelchairs.
5.    Have a person who is blind and who uses adaptive computer technology check your website and facilities for accessibility.
6.    Incorporate captions on the videos you use or produce.
7.    Include a diversity statement in job descriptions that encourages people from different backgrounds and abilities to apply.

To ensure we continue to be as inclusive and effective as possible, we urge the philanthropic community to keep people living with disabilities in mind when developing inclusive business practices.

For more perspectives from the field about the importance of making sure organizations are inclusive of people with disabilities, visit our recent blog series celebrating the 25th Anniversary of the ADA. You can also visit the D5 Resource Database for tools to help you advance diversity, equity, and inclusion within your organization. You can also familiarize yourself with the ADA regulations many small businesses are required to follow.

— Kellly Brown, Director, D5 Coalition

Kelly Brown is Director of the D5 Coalition, a five-year effort to increase philanthropy’s diversity, equity, and inclusiveness. Previously, she was Director of Programs and Evaluation at Marguerite Casey Foundation, and Grants Director at the Vanguard Public Foundation. Ms. Brown has also served as Director of Marketing and Industry Relations at OpNet and as Administrative Director for TransAfrica/TransAfrica Forum, national foreign policy organizations at the forefront of efforts to secure a peaceful transition to a multi-racial democracy in South Africa. Ms. Brown has lived and studied in Nairobi, Kenya where she worked on Kenya Women Finance Trust, one of the continent's first micro-loan funds for women.  She earned an MBA from the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley, a BA in Sociology and African/African American Studies from UC Santa Barbara, and was a Sloan Foundation Fellow at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School.  Currently, she is pursuing a PhD at the University of Chicago.